Consumer electronic mobile devices, such as for instance smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, etc., have enjoyed an explosive growth in popularity in recent years. A large number of the consumer electronic mobile devices that are on the market today include an integrated video camera, as well as wireless transceivers that support voice and data communication over cellular networks and/or Wi-Fi®. Such devices are compact in size and are easily carried around from place to place, making them readily available when an expected or an unexpected event occurs. For instance, a user may be taking part in a peaceful demonstration that unexpectedly deteriorates into a riot, or the user may be attending a spectator event such as a hot air balloon race. In either case, the user may capture video data using the video camera that is embedded in the consumer electronic mobile device and stream the captured video data to one or more other users. For instance, applications such as Skype™ support streaming of private video data from one user to another. Alternatively, as disclosed in United States Patent Application PGPUB No. 2012/0011267 to Ma et al., a live streaming system and method provides cross platform live streaming capabilities to mobile devices. The system that is disclosed by Ma et al. supports live streaming to large mobile audiences, including support for concurrent live events and different encodings of a single live event. Unfortunately, a single live stream for any given event is unlikely to provide full coverage of the event.
In United States Patent Application PGPUB No. 2008/0271072 to Rothschild et al., disclosed is a system and method for providing live, remote location experiences. According to Rothschild et al. a mobile broadcaster provides audio or video information that is geographically referenced, and this audio or video information is provided to an audience based on the geographical reference. Similar to the system and method disclosed by Ma et al., only a single live video stream is available to cover a particular event. That is to say, there is no association between different streams with similar geographical references. Rothschild et al. propose a rather unsatisfactory solution to this problem, which involves setting up a bidding system to allow viewers to obtain the right to direct the mobile broadcaster to go somewhere or to do something. Unfortunately, at best this solution provides improved coverage of an event for only one viewer at a time. Further, the coverage is limited by the mobile broadcaster's ability to move quickly about the event.
It is apparent that the prior art solutions do not support simultaneous coverage of an event at widely separated locations within a given geographic area. For instance, an event such as the peaceful demonstration that unexpectedly deteriorates into a riot may cover an area that is the size of several city blocks, with some or all of the participants being on the move, and with some portions of the riot being separated from other portions of the riot due to blockades, police lines or violence, etc. Under such circumstances the video that is streamed from a single source may be representative of only a very small portion of the area that is affected by the riot. Further, the above-mentioned types of obstacles are likely to impede movement, making it difficult and/or risky to attempt to move about and provide video coverage of other portions of the riot.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and system that overcomes at least some of the above-mentioned limitations of the prior art.